Open, Houses

In the absence of any thorough House tutorial plan, Freshmen on the hunt for the ideal domicile naturally focus much of their attention on the social facilities of the Houses. The constant center of House social life, both day-in-day-out and Saturday night, is the dining hall, and when it comes to food and decor, the Yardling will find a considerable variety from which to choose. When it comes to matters of overall policy, however, such as limits on interhouse privileges and the admission of women, he will find the same restrictions seven times over.

Problems of administration make some of these restrictions necessary. Interhouse privileges at lunch, for instance, while theoretically desirable, would result in mass descents on Adams House on cold, rainy days, and even in the warmth of spring lazy science majors would seek out the closest dining hall. Major migrations of this sort, which depend on the vagaries of the weather and of student programs, would make an administrative tangle out of all proportion to their actual value to students. But interhouse between the Union and the House is another matter. With veterans making up a large proportion of Yardlings, friendship ties cross Massachusetts Avenue, and the normal prewar division at dinner-time into Union diners and House diners becomes arbitrary and irritating. Although unshackled interhouse for Yardlings probably would end up with jammed Houses and a shunned Union, a limited plan, perhaps based on the system how being used to facilitate Freshman House-shopping, should satisfy both isolated Freshmen and efficiency-minded stewards.

As for a broader policy in admitting women to the dining halls, here administrative difficulties are at a minimum. Women already can eat in most Houses three evenings weekly and at weekend noon meals, and making the dining halls available to men with dates every night of the week should not cause any upheaval in planning. On the positive side, the House Masters have a chance to do something about their worry that the veteran is turning Harvard into an academic ivory tower. The same veteran who finds his GI bankroll too slender to allow dinners in Boston would be likely to take a social turn of mind if his House didn't shun any extension of its facilities to include women more frequently. Here the question of coeducation rears its ugly head. But at Radcliffe girls are allowed to have guests for dinner every evening, and that institution has yet to be accused of coeducational leanings.

By increasing interhouse and admitting women more often, the House dining halls could broaden the entire social base of the House system. In a University notable for its lack of social facilities, and in a time when bluebooks loom larger than checkbooks, the House Masters should not hesitate to make this move.